USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 28
USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 28
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Population .-- By the United States census for each year it has been taken, the population of Cumberland County is shown to have been as follows: In 1790, 18,243; in 1800, 25,386; in 1810, 26,757; in 1820, 23,606; in 1830, 29,226; in 1840, 30,953; in 1850, 34,327; in 1860, 40,098; in 1870, 43,912; in 1880, 45,997.
The following table gives the population by townships and boroughs from 1830 to 1870, except for the year 1840:
71
HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
TOWNSHIP On BOROUGH.
1830
1850.
18:0.
Dickinson Township.
East Pennsborough Township.
2.186
1,605
1,815
2,719
Frankford Township.
1,282
1.2-11
1.4401
1,369
Hopewell Township
901
1,053
1,326
977
Newburg Borough.
392
Lower Allen Township.
2,836
1,134
1,3×3
1,336
Mitllin Township.
1.4431
1,57-4
1,-460
1.455
Monroe Township.
1,562
1,772
1,819
1,832
Newton Township.
1,3-19
1,666
1,978
2,345
Newville Borougb
530
885
715
907
North Middleton Township.
1.933
2,235
1.0.16
1,223
Carlisle Borough. .
3,708
4,581
5,664
6,650
Carlisle, East Ward.
2,913
3,379
Carlisle, West Ward.
2,751
2.271
Penn Township ..
180
198
381
Shippensburg Borough
1.608
1,568
1,843
2,065
Silver Spring Township
1,792
2,308
2,301
2,259
Mechanicsburg Borongh
554
5,82
1,939
2,569
Southampton Township.
1.484
1,651
1,985
2,050
South Middleton Township
2,072
2,262
2,873
3,226
L'pper Allen Township.
1,220
1,275
1,341
New Cumberland Borough
315
394
515
West Pennsborough Township.
1.733
2,040
2,175
2,180
2,505
3,091
3.4.18
1,617
llampden Township.
1,973
1.229
1,199
Middlesex Township.
1,520
1,417
Shippensburg Township
1,888
By the census of 1540 the county made the following showing: Number fur- naces in the county. 6, producing 2. 530 tons cast iron; hands employed in fur- naces and forges, 400; capital invested. $110,000. Number horses and mules in the county, 9.247; neat cattle, 24.201; sheep. 23.930: >wine. 47.235; value of poultry (estimated), $12.671. Bushels of wheat raised, 567,654: barley. 11,104: oats. 654.477; rye. 247.239; buckwheat. 13,772; Indian corn, 645,056. Other productions: Pounds wool, 47, 133; hops. 4. $12, beeswax, 680; bushels potatoes, 121,641; tons hay. 24. 423: tons hemp. 113; cords wood sold, 14, 849; value of dairy products, $100, 753; orchard products, $18, 860; value of home-made or fancy goods. $24,660. Number tanneries, 31, which tanned 12,970 sides of sole leather. 10,777 of upper, and employed 64 men on a capital of $59, 175. Soap manufactured, 230,218 pounds: candles. 45,060 pounds. Number of distilleries, 25, producing 252,305 gallons "alcoholic beverages:" breweries. 3, producing 12.000 gallons beer. Fulling-mills. 12: woolen factories. 9. making $26, 800 worth of goods and employ 61 persons; 1 cotton factory: 1 paper-mill; 54 flouring-mills, making 71,652 barrels flour: 8 grist mills: 63 saw-mills: 1 oil- mill. Total capital invested in manufactories, $390,601.
The census for ISSO shows the following exhibit for Cumberland County: White population, 43. 507; colored. 2. 167; Japanese, 3. Of the colored popula- tion Carlisle had 1,117, and of the total inhabitants in the county 45,322 were natives and 655 foreign born. Number farms in county, 2,953: acres improved land, 232,093: value of farms, including land, fences and buildings, $19, 776. - 950; value farming implements and machinery, $727,41]: value live-stock on farms, $1,355,224; cost of building and repairing fences in 1879, $86, 166: costs of fertilizers purchased in 1879, 852.042; estimated value of farm products sold and on hand for 1579, $2,509,572: bushels barley raised in 1SS0, 2.553: buck wheat. 1.242: Indian corn, 1.219,107: oats, 937.166; rye, 33.055: wheat, $34.517: value of orchard products. $46,554: tons hay raised. 52,284: bushels Irish potatoes, 144, 415: bushels sweet potatoes, 9, 510: pounds tobacco, 445. 115;
72
HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
number horses, 10. 737: mules and asses. 652: working oxen, 4: milch cows. 12. - 614: other cattle, 13,442: sheep, 8,772; swine, 32.773; pounds wool, 53,816; gallons milk, 121.619; pounds butter, 960,516; pounds cheese, 2.352: number manufacturing establishments, 30S: capital invested. $2,266, 409: total hands employed, 1,592; wages paid, 8535, 068: materials used, $1, 727.651; value of products, $2,850,640; assessed value of real estate, $12,223,355: value of personal property, $2.054,110; total taxation for 1580, with the exception of one or more townships from which no reports were received. $155, 450; indebt- edness of county, bonded and floating, $142, 106.
In 1778, when the townships in the county were Allen, East and West Pennsborough. Hopewell, Middleton and Newton, besides the borough of Car- lisle, there were 111,055 acres of patented and warranted lands, 512 acres of proprietary manor lands, and 206 lots in Carlisle, upon all of which the total taxation was £120 3s. 4d.
The population of Cumberland County, by townships and boroughs in 1580, was as follows, according to the United States census report:
Carlisle Borough, 6,209 (comprising Ward No. 1, 1, 714; Ward No. 2, 1,202: Ward No. 3,1.613; Ward No. 4, 1,680); Cook Township. 417; Dickinson Town- ship, 1,741: East Pennsborough Township, 3.054; Frankford Township, 1.514; Hampden Township. 1,000; Hopewell Township. 1,069; Lower Allen Town- ship, 972: Mechanicsburg Borough, 3.015 (comprising Ward No. 1, 1, 153; Ward No. 2. 763: Ward No. 3, 543: Ward No. 4, 559); Middlesex Township, 1,466; Mifflin Township. 1,507; Monroe Township. 1,905; Mount Holly Springs Borough 1,256; Newbury Borough, 433; New Cumberland Borough, 569: Newton Township, 1,843; Newville Borough. 1.547: North Middleton Town- ship, 1,115: Penn Township, 1,521; Shippensburg Borough. 2,213; Shippens- burg Township, 494: Shiremanstown Borough, 404; Silver Spring Township, 2.263; Southhampton Township, 1,992; South Middleton Township, 2.564: Upper Allen Township, 1,400: West Pennsborough Township, 2. 161.
In November, 1SS5, the county contained the following postoffices: Allen, Barnitz, Big Spring. Bloserville, Boiling Springs, Bowmansdale. Brandts- ville, Camp Hill. Carlisle*, Carlisle Springs, Cleversburgh, Dickinson. Eber- ly's Mill, Good Hope, Greason, Green Spring. Grissinger. Hatton, Heberlig, Hoguestown, Hunter's Run, Huntsdale. Kerrsville. Lee's Cross Roads. Lis- burn, Mooredale. Mechanicsburgh*, Middlesex. Middle Spring. Mount Holly Springs, Mount Rock. Newburgh, New Cumberland. New Kingstown, Newlin, Newville*, Oakville, Pine Grove Furnace, Plainfield. Shepherdstown. Ship. pensburgh*, Shiremanstown, Stoughstown. Walnut Bottom, West Fairview. Williams Mill, Wormleysburgh-total 47.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
Public Road. 1735 .- The first publie road in the "Kittochtenny" (or Cum- berland) Valley west of the Susquehanna River, was laid ont in 1735. by order of the court of Lancaster. from Harris' ferry on the Susquehanna to Williams' ferry on the Potomac. (See pioneer chapter for further items concerning the road.) The commissioners to lay ont this road. appointed November 4, 1735, were Randle Chambers, Jacob Peat. James Silvers. Thomas Eastland, John Lawrence and Abraham Endless. It was not finished beyond Shippensburg for a number of years.and even at the time of Braddock's expedition (1755) "a tolerable road " was said to exist "as far as Shippensburg." Indian trails were the first highways. and some of them were nearly on the routes of subsequent public roads.
*Money order offices.
George Hemmingu M. D.
75
HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Military road, 1755. This was in no part in the present county of Cum- berland, though at the time it was Cumberland. It extended from McDowell's mill, neur Chambersburg. "over the mountains to Raystown (Bedford) by the forks of the Youghiogheny, to intersect the Virginia road somewhere on the Monongahela." being supposed indispensable for the supply of Braddock's troops on the route to Fort DuQuesne, and after their arrival. The commis- sioners appointed to lay it out were principally from Cumberland County: among them were George Croghan, the Indian trader: John Armstrong, who had come from Ireland about 1745, and was then (when appointed commis- sioner) a justice of the peace: Capt. James Burd; William Buchanan, of Car- lisle, and Adam Hoops, of Antrim. A route was surveyed from a gap in the mountain near Shippensburg over an old Indian trail to Raystown. Armstrong and Buchanan were called from the work by other duties, and William Smith. Francis West and John Byers were appointed in their places. The road was from ID to 30 feet wide, according to work necessary to construct it. 200 men from Cumberland County worked on the road, the whole cost being nearly £2,000. The road was completed to Raystown in the latter part of June. Braddock's defeat rendered further work unnecessary and Indian troubles caused a cessation of labor upon the roads.
The Harrisburg & Chambersburg Turnpike, passing through Hogestown, Kingston, Middlesex, Carlisle and Shippensburg was begun by an incorporated company in 1816, and was extensively traveled before the completion of the Cumberland Valley Railroad.
The Hanover & Carlisle Turnpike, * running southeast from Carlisle by way of Petersburg in Adams County, to Hanover and thence to Baltimore, was be. gun in 1812, and the Harrisburg & York Turnpike was built along the west side of the Susquehanna.
The State road leading from Harrisburg to Gettysburg and crossing the southeast portion of Cumberland County, was laid out in 1810. It is said that "it met with much opposition at first, even from those who were appointed to lo- cate it. They directed it over hills that were almost impassable, hoping thus to effect its abandonment, but its usefulness has since been so thoroughly dem- onstrated that these hills have been either graded or avoided."
Among other very early roads were one from Hoge's Spring to the Sus- quehanna River opposite Cox's town, laid out in October, 1759, and another from Trindle's spring to Kelso's ferry in January, 1792.
Cumberland Valley Railroad. Looking back over the past fifty years, the half century's horizon includes the sum total of that almost fairy story of magie that we find in the development of our entire system of railroads to their present marvellous perfection. The crude and simple beginnings; the old strap rails that would so playfully curl up through the car and sometimes through a passenger; the quaint, little, old engines that the passengers had to shoulder the wheels on an up-grade, where they would "stall" so often with five of the little cars attached to them; the still more curious coaches, built and finished inside after the style of the olden-time stage coaches, where pas- sengers sat face to face, creeping along over the country-what a wonder and marvel they were then to the world, and now in the swift half century what a curiosity they are as relies of the past. The railroad forced the coming of the telegraph, the telephone, the electric light,-the most wonderful onward sweep of civilization that has yet shed its sunshine and sweetness upon the world in this brief-told story of fifty years.
"The company to build this road was incorporated March 25, 1800, but work was not begun until 1812. The portion between Carlisle and the York County line was built upon a public road laid out in 1793 and knowD as "the public road from Carlisle through Trent's Gap to the York County line."
12
t
76
HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
The history of the Cumberland Valley Railroad spans the entire period of railroad existence in this country. The first charter is dated in April, 1831. The active promoters were, among others, Judge Frederick Watts, Samuel Alexander, Charles B. Penrose, William Biddle, Thomas G. Mccullough, Thomas Chambers, Philip Berlin and Lewis Harlan. The designated termini were Carlisle and the bank of the river opposite Harrisburg. In 1836 a sup- plemented charter authorized the construction of a bridge at Harrisburg. Surveyors completed the location of the line in 1835; the road was at once contracted for and the work actively commenced in the spring of 1836. In Angust, 1837, it was "partially and generally" opened for business. At first, passengers and freight were transported across the river by horse-power, and but a small force of this kind could do all the business easily. In 1835 an act was passed extending the line of the road to Chambersburg,
In 1856 the Cumberland Valley Road was authorized, by the authority of the States of Pennsylvania and Maryland, to purchase the Franklin Railroad, which also was one of the early-built roads of the country. It was then a completed road from Chambersburg to Hagerstown. The consolidation of the two lines was effected fully in 1864, and at once the line was completed to the Potomac-Martinsburg-the present Cumberland Valley Railroad; a distance of 94 miles from Harrisburg to Martinsburg. An extension is now contem- plated of twenty-two miles from Martinsburg to Winchester, which opens the way for this road to the tempting marts and traffic of the South and West. The first president was Hon. Thomas G. Mccullough, elected June 27, 1835. His executive abilities and ripe judgment-for he had no precedents then to follow, so he had to evolve a system for the young and awkward giant from his own brain-show that he was the right man in the right place. In 1840, Hon. Charles B. Penrose became the president. He resigned in 1841, having been appointed solicitor of the treasury, when Judge Frederick Watts, now of Carlisle, became the president, and filled the position ably and acceptably until 1873, when he resigned to become the commissioner of agriculture, by the appointment of President Grant, where he remained six years and retired to private life, though still an efficient and active member of the board of directors of the railroad.
Thomas B. Kenedy, the present incumbent, was elected to the position on the retirement of Judge Watts. He resides in Chambersburg, which has been his home since early boyhood. The history of the other general officers of the road is told wholly in the long life's labor of General E. M. Biddle, who is now the secretary and treasurer, and who has filled the place so ably and well since 1839. What a wonderful panorama in the world's swift changes since 1839, has unfolded itself and has been a part of the official life of General Biddle! He owes now one great duty to this generation and to future man- kind, and that is to tell the story of what he saw and was a part of-the particulars of the little crude commencement of railroads and the steps leading to their present greatness and boundless capabilities. A sleeping car was put on this road in 1839-a historical fact of great interest because it was the first of the kind in the world. They were upholstered boards, three-deckers, held by leather straps, and in the day were folded back against the wall, very sim- ple and plain in construction, but comfortable.
The Dillsburg & Mechanicsburg Railroad is a branch of the Cumberland Valley Railroad, extending from the towns indicated in its name. The length is eight miles. It was organized September 2, 1871, and completed the fol- lowing year. It has been a paying property from the first, and adds much to the comfort and well-being of the people of the country it taps.
77
IHISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
The financial affairs of the road are fully explained in the following:
First preferred stock. $241,900 00
Second preferred stock. 243,000 00
Common preferred stock .. 1,292,950 00
First Mortgage Bonds, due 1901
161,000 00
Second Mortgage Bonds, due 1908. 109,500 00
Dividends and Interest dne.
41,313 20
Profit and loss.
701,871 91
Total.
. $2,791,535 61
Harrisburg & Potomac Railroad. The original, active promoters, the or- ganizers and builders of this road were the Ahl brothers, Daniel V. and Peter A. Ahl, of Nowville. They procured the charter, furnished the money for the preliminary work, cashed the bonds to a large extent. and contracted and built the original road. The road was chartered June 27. 1870, as the Mer- amar Iron & Railroad Company. its name explaining the original purposes of the enterprise. The officers elected June 20, 1870, were Daniel V. Ahl. president; Asbury Derland, secretary; William Gracey, treasurer; William H. Miller, solieitor. The road was built from Chambersburg to Richmond. The project was then expanded, and the road built from Chambersburg to Waynesboro, via Mount Alto. The charter members: Daniel V. Ahl, John Evans, Asbury Derland, John Moore, W. H. Langsdorf, George Clever, Sam- uel N. Bailey, Alexander Underwood and James Bosler. A branch road was surveyed and built from the main line to Dillsburg. When the construction of the line was about completed the concern fell into great financial difficulties, when the almost omnipotent Pennsylvania Road gathered it quietly to its fold and shaped its destinies into the present line of road, and it took its present name, The Harrisburg & Potomac Railroad.
The Northern Centrat Railroad passes along the shore of the Susquehanna. crossing the eastern end of Cumberland County in which it has about nine miles of road.
The South Mountain Railroad, built or completed in 1869, by the South Mountain Iron Company extending from Carlisle to Pine Grove Furnace, is seventeen and one-half miles long.
CHAPTER V.
MILITARY-CUMBERLAND COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTION-THE WHISKEY INSUR- RECTION-THE WAR OF 1812.
F "OR more than ten years after the close of the Indian wars the inhabitants of the county gave their attention to peaceful pursuits. Agriculture flourished and the population increased. Great Britain finally attempted to force her American colonies to comply with all her outrageous demands without giving them any voice in the Government. They naturally objected. The famous " Boston port bill " roused their ire. This county had few citizens who stood by the mother conntry in such proceedings. July 12, 1774, a pub- lic meeting was called, of which the following are the minutes:
" At a respectable gathering of the freeholders and freemen from several townships of Cumberland County in the province of Pennsylvania, held at
78
HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Carlisle, in the said county, on Tuesday, the 12th day of July, 1774, John Montgomery, Esq., in the chair-
1. Resolved, That the late act of the Parliament of Great Britain, by which the port of Boston is shut up, is oppressive to that town and subversive of the rights and liberties of the colony of Massachusetts Bay; that the principle upon which the act is founded is not more subversive of the rights and liberties of that colony than it is of all other British colonies in North America; and, therefore, the inhabitants of Boston are suffering in the common cause of all these colonies.
2. That every vigorous and prudent measure ought speedily and unanimously to be adopted by these colonies for obtaining redress of the grievances under which the inhabi- tants of Boston are now laboring; and security from grievance of the same or of a still more severe nature under which they and the other inhabitants may, by a further operation of the same principle, hereafter labor.
3. That a congress of deputies from all the colonies will be one proper method for ob- taining these purposes.
4. That the same purpose will, in the opinion of this meeting, be promoted by an agreement of all the colonies not to import any merchandise from nor export any merchan- dise to Great Britain, Ireland, or the British West Indies, nor to use any such merchan- dise so imported, nor tea imported from any place whatever, till these purposes be obtained; but that the inhabitants of this country will join any restriction of that agreement which the general Congress may think it necessary for the colouies to confine themselves to.
5. That the inhabitants of this county will contribute to the relief of their suffering brethren in Boston at any time when they shall receive intimation that such relief will be most seasouable.
6. That a committee he immediately appointed for this county to correspond with the commitee of this province or of the other provinces upon the great objects of the pub- lic attention; and to co-operate in every measure conducing to the general welfare of Briish America.
7. That the committee consist of the following persons, viz .: James Wilson, John Armstrong, John Montgomery, William Irvine, Robert Callender, William Thompson, John Calhoon, Jonathan Hoge, Robert Magaw, Ephraim Blane, John Allison, John Har- ris and Robert Miller, or any five of them.
8. That James Wilson, Robert Magaw and William Irvine be the deputies appointed to meet the deputies from other counties of this province at Philadelphia on Friday next, in order to concert measures praparatory to the General Congress.
JOHN MONTGOMERY, Chairman.
This meeting was held in the Presbyterian Church at Carlisle, and the chairman (Montgomery) was an elder in the church. The meeting was called on receipt of a letter from the Assembly, under action of June 30, calling upon each county to provide arms and ammunition and men to use them from out their associated companies, also to assess real and personal estates to defray expenses. The Assembly encouraged military organizations, and promised to see that officers and men called into service were paid. We quote Dr. Wing's notes upon the men composing the committee:
"James Wilson was born in 1742 in Scotland; had received a finished edu- cation at St. Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow, under Dr. Blair in rhetoric and Dr. Watts in logic, and in 1766 had come to reside in Philadelphia, where he studied law with John Dickinson, from whom he doubtless acquired some- thing of the spirit which then distinguished that eminent patriot. When ad- mitted to practice he took up his residence in Carlisle. In an important land case, which had recently been tried between the proprietaries and Samuel Wallace, he had gained the admiration of the most eminent lawyers in the province, and at once had taken rank second to none at the Pennsylvania bar. At the meeting of the people now held in Carlisle, he made a speech which drew forth the most rapturous applause. Robert Magaw was a native of Cumberland County, belonging to a family which had early settled in Hope- well Township, and was also a lawyer of some distinction in Carlisle. The career on which he was now entering was one in which he was to become known to the American people as one of their purest and bravest officers. William Irvine was a native of Ireland from the neighborhood of Enniskillen; had been
79
HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
classically educated at the University of Dublin, and had carly ovinced a fondness for military life, but had been induced by his parents to devote him- self to the medical and surgical profession. On receiving his diploma he had been appointed a surgeon in the British Navy, where he continued until the close of the French war (1754 63), when he resigned his place, removed to America and settled in Carlisle, where he nequired a high reputation and an extensive practice as a physician. William Thompson had served as a captain of horso in the expeditions against the Indians (1759-60), had been appointed a justice of the peace in Hopewell Township, and had lately been active in the relief of the inhabitants in the western part of the province in their difli- culties with Virginia on the boundary question. Jonathan Hoge and John Calhoon had been justices of the peace and judges in the county, and be- longed to two of the oldest and most respectable familes in the vicinity of Silvers' Spring. Ephriam Blaine we have known for his brave defense of a fort at Ligonier, and was now the proprietor of a large property and mills on the Conodoguinet, near the cave, about a mile north of Carlisle. John Alli- son, of Tyrone Township; John Harris, a lawyer of Carlisle, and Robert Miller, living about a mile northeast of Carlisle in Middleton Township; John Montgomery, a member of the Assembly, and Robert Callender, formerly an extensive trader with the Indians, a commissary for vietualing the troops on the western campaign and the owner of mills at the confluence of the Letort with the Conodoguinet, were all of them active as justices, judges and commis- sioners for the county.'
The three delegates from Cumberland County were at Philadelphia a few days later, when the delegates from the various counties of the province as- sembled, and James Wilson was one of the committee of eleven which brought in a paper of "Instructions on the present situation of public affairs to the representatives who were to meet in the Colonial Assembly next week." The proceedings of this meeting, the subsequent steps of the Assembly, and all the proceedings up to the opening of hostilities, are matters of record not necessary to introduce here. The committee of thirteen which had been ap- pointed at Carlisle, July 12, 1774, kept busy, and through their efforts a " committee of observation" was chosen by the people who had general over- sight of civil affairs, and few counties were more fortunate than Cumberland in their choice of men. About this time the terms "whig " and "tory " began to be heard, and the bitterness the two partisan factions held toward each other after the declaration by the colonies of their independence, was extreme, leading to atrocious crimes and terrible murders by the tories when they could strike like cowards, knowing their strength. "Few such," says Dr. Wing, " were found among the native population of this valley. There were indeed some both in civil and in ecclesiastical life who questioned whether they had a right to break the oath or vow of allegiance which they had taken on assuming some official station. Even these were seldom prepared to go so far as to give actual aid and comfort to the enemy, or to make positive resistance to the efforts of the patriots. They usually contented themselves with a negative withdraw- al from all participation in efforts at independence. Many of them were earn- est supporters of all movements for redress of grievances, and paused only when they were asked to support what they looked upon as rebellion. These hardly deserved the name of " tories. " since they were not the friends of extreme royal prerogative, and only doubted whether the colonies were authorized by what they had suffered to break entirely away from the crown to which they had sworn allegiance, and whether the people were yet able to maintain this separate position. Among these who deserved rather to be ranked as non-
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